I wasn't going to post because i didnt want to come off as sounding bias, Id say maybe not drop the toc but lower the prizes and up the other events. If we want to bring in more teams from surrounding states we have to have something to pull them in, even if its just for one event to help spread the word. Having the next event helped ME out a lot and was the main reason i was able to keep playing this season but i dont mind giving that up for prizes that will pull in more teams and make the CFOA bigger.

The only way you are going to bring in teams from other states is to raise the prize packages enough to offset the travel costs and/or offer a superior tournament product. The Cfoa already has some of the best/experienced refs in the area, so there isn't much that can be done there.
Splitting up the TOC prizes in to the event prizes will not even come close to covering travel costs.
If you want more teams to play cfoa, I have one question for you: What have you done as a player to help, encourage, or teach lower level teams/players to become better and play cfoa events? Or do you just shoot them up at your local field and drive them from the sport or away from tournaments.
If you want anything to grow you have to work from the inside to bring more people in. You have to be active in making the product better.

The days of deep industry pockets dumping prizes into regional series events are over. The events have to be able to pay for themselves. The amount of series prizes is typically tied to the amount of advertising or paint sales that the larger industry companies can expect from events that they 'sponsor'.

And I'm not going to go against my brothers but being in the military and this not playing the Season is bs, I've been in 7 years and on my B-Billet now over at SOI it's all about working with your fellow brothers at work IOT let you make the tournaments. I made all the tournaments this season minus 1 because I asked fellow instructors to cover for me while I played. And if you need to figure out how to play while in the military talk to me. But saying "I voted to spread them out since I work for the military and never get to play a hole season at all so gives something to hope to try to pay off the cost of playing events every now and then" is not a valid reason. Call me out if you want but that's not an excuse if there's other in the military members that can make the season.

The reason I can't play as an enabler I work for the Air Force and sometimes have as little as 6 hours to get my gear and get to work to go places. It would be nice to be able to play all season but the only way to move up the ladder in my job is to volunteer to go places even if they are holes in the wall countries. I appreciate all the help but sometimes I got to put my career infront of my hobbies and think long term.

Another consideration for TOC is to make it more accessible to teams. ie, take more teams instead of just the top six. maybe the top 8? I liked TOC and the atmosphere it brought with it both playing it two years ago and reffing it this year.

Yes upping the numbers will always help the number of teams there which help the people that run the tourney because they more teams the more paint shot. I def like the idea of events near the beach that I could attend when it's warm because I'd make a mini vacation and stay in the town during the week after if possible

And I'm not going to go against my brothers but being in the military and this not playing the Season is bs, I've been in 7 years and on my B-Billet now over at SOI it's all about working with your fellow brothers at work IOT let you make the tournaments. I made all the tournaments this season minus 1 because I asked fellow instructors to cover for me while I played. And if you need to figure out how to play while in the military talk to me. But saying "I voted to spread them out since I work for the military and never get to play a hole season at all so gives something to hope to try to pay off the cost of playing events every now and then" is not a valid reason. Call me out if you want but that's not an excuse if there's other in the military members that can make the season.

Not **** you can do if your ops tempo requires you to deploy 6 months out the year almost every year. My base is extremely busy with our misson and we are always gone. So its not a matter of not getting time off, its that fact that there is always a good chance that I wont be in the country for a good part of the season. With that being said this is just my personal experience. The outcome should be what is best for the league and what the players want.

Last season we only played one event. Brand new team with 3 military members and a few guys that werent sure how commited they were to the sport. Hopefully this season will be a bit different for us, or I may be looking to try out for a team when I get home.

Another consideration for TOC is to make it more accessible to teams. ie, take more teams instead of just the top six. maybe the top 8? I liked TOC and the atmosphere it brought with it both playing it two years ago and reffing it this year.

Taking 8 would be great except this year they took 6 and only 4 showed up in d5 and 5 in d4. And with the cfoa needing the entry fees to cover prizes they probably lost money at toc. Its unbelievable that teams that qualified for it with the prizes being given didnt show. But they had to scrape the barrel the year before to get 6 in each division as well.

Taking 8 would be great except this year they took 6 and only 4 showed up in d5 and 5 in d4. And with the cfoa needing the entry fees to cover prizes they probably lost money at toc. Its unbelievable that teams that qualified for it with the prizes being given didnt show. But they had to scrape the barrel the year before to get 6 in each division as well.

This is true... Though I must say, I didn't think last year was scraping the barrel. I want to say that all the teams invited came. Or did I miss something?

Imo I like prizes for each event, I think it attracts a lot more teams when they don't have to play every single event to try and win a prize package at the end of the season. For those of you worried about teams playing one event and winning prizes and not playing another event, does your team win an event and not show up for the next event..? And ****, if you haven't seen the team before and think they are just trying to win one event and be done, sack up and throw them a beatdown. Their un loyal ***'s can't win **** if you don't let them..

Having a toc creates consistant teams across the season. When you divide the prizes up, you may have 16 teams compete one event, and 5 the next.
But with a toc, you end up seeing teams with a common goal of sticking it out and riding the season. I enjoy the TOC concept, hope CFOA doesn't chang a thing this year.

-Moderate/good prizes per event, with a final invite only event that has fantastic prizes.

-Open the TOC event to top 4 from season standings(and give them a entry discount for their loyalty and hard work), then create additional wildcard slots for any team that's finished in the top 4 at any event.

In my opinion, you're going to get more teams by keeping costs low and fun high then you will by increasing the prizes. I just don't see teams searching for events to play with the goal of making money or breaking even. I see far more teams trying to "throw something together" and play because it's fun and cheap...the prizes and being able to offset some costs is just a bonus.

For the individual tournaments give away paint prizes or half off entry to cfoa tournaments or something like that to keep teams coming back and playing for something and then keep toc for the big price packages. this encourages teams to play the whole season and to play individual tournaments. I havent played cfoa in like 2 seasons but was planning on jumping in again so my opinion may be skewed but thats what i think.

For the individual tournaments give away paint prizes or half off entry to cfoa tournaments or something like that to keep teams coming back and playing for something and then keep toc for the big price packages. this encourages teams to play the whole season and to play individual tournaments. I havent played cfoa in like 2 seasons but was planning on jumping in again so my opinion may be skewed but thats what i think.

This is actually exactly what they do right now. 1st receives full entry to the next CFOA, 2nd gets half, and 3rd gets 5 cases of paint.

I personally love TOC, I've played it twice, once we got wrecked, and the second time we actually won. It really puts the 'best of the best' on the same field against each other to play for some big prizes. If you don't want to make the commitment to play a season, then you shouldn't get the same prize opportunity as a team that played every single event.

Too many posts for me to read them all, but they have two main themes.
1) Keep TOC prizes- we prefer to reward teams who play whole season.
2) I can't/don't want to put work into playing whole season but I want rewards anyway.

Brian, keep things the way they are now. I can't tell you how exciting CFOA has been the last two years. Of course, I miss the old days (and I only started playing at the end of them) but those days are over for now.

The current regular prizes are very nice in my opinion. Many of you should know this, but the current prizes work something like this:

1st- Free entry/paint
2nd- half entry/paint
3rd- paint

I believe the above is correct when there are sufficient teams to support that prize package. And you guys are complaining about that? Really? I haven't paid more than $100 to play a CFOA in two years. Winning teams can play for less or even free.

After that, you have the TOC prizes. I haven't played a TOC because I'm just really really bad at paintball, but I think it's an amazing concept and keeps teams playing the series.
The current system rewards teams that continue to support the series. The event prizes are appealing in my opinion.

If you were to change this, who does it reward? The teams who only want to play one or two events. The people who are voting for the change are those who only play a few events.

As someone who plays most of the events and tries to play them all, I would be upset to see the league start to cater more to the teams who say they can only play events at one location. When they complain about travel and say they can't make the rest- they are really just saying they don't want to support the league. Without being an *******, it's that simple. Team doesn't travel to events that aren't at their home field = team doesn't support league. They're only supporting themselves.

In closing, the prize packages are very appealing the way they are now.
I don't like whiners. I travel for Dale.

ombres- I understand your logic and can pretty much agree with what you say. Except I know I am one of the people saying my team probably cant make all the events except the close ones. Ours is not due to home field, we play out of Glory Road, but due to the expenses of travel is why we cannot make the far events. (We are all college students except for 1 player...) With that said, if TOC does continue, then we will play all close ones, and try to make the further ones if we do not do well enough at the close events to stay in top 7 (or whatever the number is).

ok Thomas i know its been awhile since you played cfoa , but ECE elite repectfully won 1900. in entry fees , 2160.00 in paint including the half off at world cup and paint at world cup !! 4060.00 and a small investment in enter fees ..

would love for justin, ryan, or anyone from ECE comment .

and for that... we thank you. I know I didn't play the entire season but I was lucky enough to play for Homecoming and World Cup, something I would not have done without the help of East Coast Elite and CFOA.

Also I like the ToC concept, its a fair fight for the teams that were there to support the series all year.